Blowback (56 page)

1
.

Robert Bishop and E. S. Crayfield,
Russia Astride the Balkans
(New York: McBride & Co., 1948), p. 264ff., with quote on p. 266.

2
.

Full text of NSC 20/1 is available in Thomas Etzold and John Lewis Gaddis, eds.,
Containment: Documents on American Policy and Strategy 1945–1950
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1978), p. 173ff.

For Kennan's pivotal role in the creation of American clandestine action capabilities during this period, discussed in the text, see
Church Committee Report
, Book IV, pp. 29–31; Mickelson, op. cit., pp. 14–19; and Corson, op. cit., pp. 294–95 and 302–07.

3
.

NSC 20/1, quoted in Etzold and Gaddis, op. cit., pp. 176, 180, 190, 192, and 201.

4
.

For basic documentation on Bloodstone, including its cover story, see “Utilization of Native Anti-Communist Elements in Non-Western Hemisphere Countries Outside the Iron Curtain in the Interest of the United States,” State, Army, Navy, Air Force Coordinating Committee (SANACC) 395 Document 10, undated (May 1948?, top secret). On assignment of Bloodstone as a code word for the project, see Document 28, June 18, 1948 (top secret). These records are now available through Scholarly Resources' microfilm edition of State, War, Navy Coordinating Committee (SWNCC) and SANACC records. See Martin P. Claussen and Evelyn B. Claussen,
Numerical Catalog and Alphabetical Index for State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee and State-Army-Navy-Air Force Coordinating Committee Case Files 1944–1949
(Wilmington,
Del.: Scholarly Resources, Inc., 1978), for a guide to these record collections. The document numbers noted here refer to the document numbers on the “List of Papers” which accompanies the original SANACC 395 dossier and which is reproduced in the microfilm collection. New SANACC 395 records, obtained by the author via the FOIA and not available in the microfilm collection, are noted separately.

5
.

On Wisner's role, see “Utilization of Refugees,” Policy Planning Staff policy paper PPS 22/1, Department of State, March 4, 1948 (secret), and Wisner memo, March 17, 1948 (secret), both cited in SANACC document registers as SANACC 395 Document 1, March 4, 1948 (secret). On Lovett's role, see SANACC Document 13, May 26, 1948, and Saltzman memo to Lovett, May 27, 1948 (top secret).

6
.

SANACC 395, March 17, 1948, “Utilization of Refugees from the USSR in the U.S. National Interest” (secret), Document 2, pp. 1, 5, and 6. See also SANACC Document 12, May 25, 1948, Gardiner memo to Bohlen, Armstrong, etc. (top secret) and May 27, 1948, Saltzman memo (top secret), both in microfilm collection; and September 22, 1948, memo from Stone to Mosely re: SANACC 395/1 (top secret), obtained by author through the FOIA.

7
.

SANACC 395 Document 10, “Utilization of Native Anti-Communist Elements in Non-Western Hemisphere Countries Outside the Iron Curtain in the Interest of the United States,” undated, (May 1948?, top secret); SANACC Secretary H. W. Moseley to Executive Secretary NSC, June 10, 1948, SANACC 395 Document 23.

8
.

JSPC 862/3 (Revised) August 2, 1948 (top secret), p. 5 (on relation to SANACC 395 and 396); Appendix “C,” p. 35 (on SANACC 395 and 396 recruits for “special operations”); and Appendix “C,” p. 27 (“special operations” defined) at P&O 352 TS (Section 1, Case 1), RG 319, NA.

Brief notes on Franklin Lindsay's career, mentioned in footnote, may be found in Smith,
OSS
, p. 161. Lindsay's role in the early proposals for training anti-Communist émigrés is noted in the JSPC 862 records noted above, enclosure “B.”

9
.

JSPC 891/6, “Joint Outline War Plans for Determination of Mobilization Requirements for War Beginning 1 July 1949,” September 17, 1948 (top secret), p. 36, “Psychological Warfare.” For country-by-country review, see Tab “B,” p. 39ff., with quoted portion at p. 40. Document is at P&O 370.1 TS (Case 7, Part IA, Sub Nos. 13), RG 319, NA.

10
.

NSC 10/2, loc. cit., or see
Church Committee Report
, Book IV, pp. 29–31.

11
.

Thomas Powers,
The Man Who Kept the Secrets: Richard Helms and the CIA
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1979), pp. 37–39.

12
.

John Paton Davies interview, November 23, 1983.

13
.

Church Committee Report
, Book IV, p. 30.

14
.

W. Park Armstrong memorandum to Kennan, Davies, Saltzman, Thompson, and Humelsine, subject: “Refugee Problem and SANACC 395,” November 8, 1948 (top secret), obtained through the FOIA.

Armstrong comments: Armstrong interview, June 17, 1983. Armstrong died on June 2, 1985; see “W. Park Armstrong Jr.,”
Washington Post
, June 6, 1985, p. C12, for obituary.

SANACC 395 and 396 were removed as “Agenda Items” from SANACC
Committee consideration shortly after the approval of SANACC 395 and NSC 10/2 in June 1948. As this memorandum clearly shows, however, these projects were by no means canceled; they were simply pushed under a deeper security cover, primarily inside Wisner's OPC.

15
.

For discussion of Bloodstone and Congress, see Charles Saltzman to Robert Lovett, May 17, 1948 (top secret), also cited as SWNCC 395 Document 14; and Charles Bohlen to Moseley, August 30, 1948 (top secret). For Charles Thayer's role in the approach to Congress and particularly in dealing with the problem of potential “sour apples” among the immigrants, see SANACC 395 memos dated September 22 and 20, 1948 (top secret), both obtained via FOIA from NA.

16
.

Church Committee Report
, Book IV, p. 31.

17
.

“If an occasion arose” quote: Ibid., p. 31. “Dismay” quote: Yergin, op. cit., p. 284.

18
.

Church Committee Report
, Book IV, p. 31.

1
.

Tom Clark: SANACC 395 memo, June 10, 1948 (top secret); W. Park Armstrong: Armstrong memorandum to Kennan, Davies, Saltzman, Thompson, and Humelsine, November 8, 1948 (top secret); both obtained through FOIA request. John Earman: SANA 6045, “Appointment of an Ad Hoc Committee,” April 26, 1948 (secret), SANACC 395 Document 9; on Earman's later role at CIA, see “John S. Earman Jr., 60,” obituary,
Washington Post
, April 11, 1974. On Boris Pash, see SANA 6045, “Appointment of an Ad Hoc Committee,” April 26, 1948 (secret), SANACC 395 Document 9. On Pash's work for OPC, see
Church Committee Report
, Book IV, pp. 128–32.

Future ambassadors to the USSR involved in either planning or implementing SANACC 395 were George F. Kennan, Charles Bohlen, and Llewellyn Thompson; the VOA director was Charles Thayer; the future Radio Free Europe director was Howland H. Sargeant. The State Department's intelligence and policy apparatus was represented in Bloodstone planning or implementation by W. Park Armstrong (director of the Office of Intelligence and Research—INR), Evron Kirkpatrick (later deputy director of INR), George Fearing (director of intelligence collection and dissemination), and John D. Hickerson and Francis Stevens (both of the Office of Eastern European Affairs).

For a more complete picture of Bloodstone personalities and the role they played in the creation of this program, see the original documentation in Scholarly Resources microfilm SANACC file, cited above. For documentation on characterization of Bloodstone mentioned in text, see Chapter Eight.

2
.

“If practicable” quote: SANA 6083, dated May 25 and June 4, 1948 (top secret), SANACC Document 12. “Attorney General” quote: SANACC 395 memo, September 20, 1948 (top secret), obtained via FOIA from NA. For other Bloodstone documentation concerning Boyd, see SANA 6024, April 15, 1948 (secret), also cited as SANACC 395 Document 8; SANA 6107, Attorney General to Moseley, June 17, 1948 (secret); and SANA 6156, July 7, 1948 (top secret). For other data on Boyd's career: Immigration and Naturalization Service internal publication
INS Information Bulletin
(July-August 1973), and John Boyd interviews, May 27 and August 11, 1983.

3
.

“Summary of Provisions of the Displaced Persons Act of 1948,”
IRO
[International Refugee Organization]
News Digest
, No. 13 (June 30, 1948), p. 6.

4
.

For Alexander's relationship to Bloodstone, see “State Department Implementation of SANACC 395/1,” Gardiner to Hummelsine, June 10, 1948 (top secret), obtained through FOIA. For coverage of Alexander's testimony and the subsequent controversy discussed in footnote, see “Subversive Agents Believed in U.S. Under Wing of U.N,” July 21, 1948; “Marshall Knows No Agents in U.N.,” July 22, 1948; “Those U.N., Communists” (editorial), July 24, 1948; “Vindication for the U.N.” (editorial), August 28, 1948; “U.N. Spy Charges Called Baseless,” September 2, 1948; “State Department Accuses Visa Aide,” September 16, 1948; “U.S. Aide Threatens Suit,” October 5, 1948; “Alexander Is Reprimanded for Charging Subversives Entered Country Through U.N.,” October 22, 1948, all of which appeared in the
New York Times
. For Alexander's 1960 comments, see “Problem of Refugees” (letter),
New York Times
, December 11, 1960. Report of Alexander's death is based on Dennis Hayes (president, Foreign Service Association) interview, July 8, 1983.

5
.

Quoted comments from Kirkpatrick and Penniman from Evron Kirkpatrick interview, November 10, 1983, and Howard Penniman interview, November 10, 1983. Kirkpatrick's relationship to Bloodstone is established at “State Department Implementation of SANACC 395/1.” For basic biographic information on Kirkpatrick, see
Contemporary Authors
, vol. 57–60, p. 321, and
Biographic Directory
of the American Political Science Association for 1968 and 1973. For critical statements mentioned in footnote, see Robert Walters, “Kirkpatrick Organization Linked to CIA Fund Outlets,”
Washington Star
, February 19, 1967; Robert Sherrill, “The Professor and the CIA,”
Nation
(February 27, 1967). “On Quoting ‘The Nation,'”
Washington Star
, March 3, 1967 (Kirkpatrick's reply); Tom Lewis and John Freidman, “Is USIA Sponsoring a Hidden Curriculum?,”
Harper's Weekly
(June 14, 1976); Allen Boyce (pseudonym), “The Market for Potted Expertise,”
Nation
(November 11, 1978).

6
.

The criteria are drawn from the following: “Entry of Alien Specialists,” Kirlin to Bohlen, August 2, 1948 (top secret), SANACC microfilm records; “State Department Implementation of SANACC 395/1”; Armstrong memo to Kennan, Davies, etc.; and SANACC 395/1, “Utilization of Refugees from the Soviet Union in the U.S. National Interest,” May 25, 1948 (top secret).

7
.

“Operational Situation Report USSR No. 11,” March 1 to March 31, 1942, Einsatzgruppen report, Prosecution Exhibit 13,
Trials of War Criminals
, loc. cit., vol. IV, pp. 188–91.

Hilger's own brief presentation of his wartime role is in Gustav Hilger and Alfred G. Meyer,
The Incompatible Allies: A Memoir-History of German-Soviet Relations 1918–1941
(New York: Macmillan, 1953), p. 338, which is an English-language adaption of Gustav Hilger,
Wir und der Kreml, Deutschsowietische Beziehungen 1918–1941
(Frankfurt am Main: Metzner, 1955). Allen Dulles, then U.S. OSS chief in Bern, Switzerland, cabled to Washington in mid-1944 that “on Russian affairs … Ribbentrop listens mainly to Hilger.” See “Bern to OSS,” July 19, 1944, Washington Section R&C 78, Bern, June 1, 1944, to July 31, 1944, Entry 134, Box 276, RG 226, NA.

8
.

The Hungarian incident is discussed in captured Nazi correspondence dated
January 27, 1944, reproduced in Randolph Braham,
The Destruction of Hungarian Jewry: A Documentary Account
(New York: World Federation of Hungarian Jews, 1963), pp. 122–24. The reproduced file is Nuremberg evidence document NG 2594.

9
.

Data on Hilger's role in the Nazi Foreign Office and the murder of Italian Jews are found in Hilberg, op. cit., pp. 351 and 432–33; Nuremberg document NG-5026, “Hilger to Group Inland II”; and Charles Allen, “Nazi War Criminals Living Among Us,”
Jewish Currents
(January 1963), pp. 5–9. For a contemporary OSS documentation of the role of the Foreign Ministry in the deportation of Italian Jews, see “Bern to OSS,” December 30, 1943 (KAPPA series), Washington Sect. R&C 78, Entry 134, Folder 3, Box 274, RG 226, NA.

10
.

Dallin,
German Rule
, pp. 505 and 635; see also Fischer, op. cit., pp. 26, 137.

11
.

Hilger's CROWCASS entry is found on p. 168, Box 1719, RG 153, NA, Suitland, Md., a copy of which is in the author's collection.

12
.

Strik-Strikfeldt, op. cit., p. 238 (seen in Mannheim POW camp); and
Trials of War Criminals
, loc. cit., vol. XI, pp. 600–01, April 17, 1946 (in United States during Nuremberg trials).

The FBI, in response to several FOIA inquiries filed by the author, revealed that it holds at least twelve dossiers concerning Hilger's activities in the United States, including one acknowledging his role as an FBI informant (in 1950) and a second so secret that even its file number remains classified. Of the fragmentary information that the bureau did declassify, the most interesting is the record of its interrogations of Hilger dated November 22 and December 8, 1948, summarizing his work for the German government. There is no indication that the bureau inquired into Hilger's role in the Holocaust. The Department of State has also declassified a fragmentary collection of records concerning Hilger, most of which date from the late 1970s. Copies in the author's collection.

13
.

Telegram traffic concerning Hilger's 1948 transit into the United States includes: Berlin to Washington dispatch marked “Personal for Kennan,” 862.00/9–2548, September 25, 1948 (top secret); Heidelberg to Washington dispatch marked “For Kennan,” 862.00/9–2748, September 27, 1948 (top secret), which suggests use of false identities; Washington to Heidelberg, 862.00/9–2848, September 28, 1948 (top secret); Heidelberg to Washington, 862.00/9–3048, September 30, 1948 (top secret), all of which are found in RG 59, NA, Washington, D.C.

On this point, see also U.S. Army INSCOM dossier concerning Hilger, No. XE-00–17-80 16A045, which the author obtained via an FOIA request from the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Document 46 in that dossier, “350.09: Transmittal of Classified Personal [illegible],” October 19, 1948 (confidential), notes that “Gen. Walsh or George Kennan State Department should be contacted in case of difficulty” during Hilger's travel to the United States. Document 37 of the same dossier (“subject: Background Investigation, HILGER, Gustav, 25 July 1951”) indicates Hilger was issued nonimmigrant Visa No. 324 at the U.S. Consulate in Munich on October 6, 1948.

For subcommittee specializing in false identification for Bloodstone émigrés discussed in footnote, see “Utilization of Refugees,” SANACC 395/1, May 25, 1948 (top secret), pp. 11–16, with quote from p. 16.

14
.

Poppe interview, October 26, 1984.

On Eurasian Institute role in employing former Nazis mentioned in footnote, see cable “For Offie from Davies,” May 27, 1948 (secret) 800.43 Eurasian Institute/5–2748 secret file; “From Tehran to Secretary of State, attention John Davies,” re: Ulus and Sunsh, July 27, 1948 (secret), 800.43 Eurasian Institute/7–2748 secret file; “Department of State to AMEMBASSY, Tehran,” re: Sunsh, July 27, 1948 (secret), 800.43 Eurasian Institute/7–2748; “For Davies from Dooher,” re: Ulus, August 12, 1948 (secret), 800.43 Eurasian Institute/ 8–1248; “Department of State to AMEMBASSY, Athens,” initialed by Kennan, October 12, 1948 (secret), 800.43 Eurasian
(sic)
Institute/10–1248; etc. All in RG 59, NA.

15
.

On Hilger's relationship with Bohlen and the Office of National Estimates, see Bohlen, op. cit, p. 292; and Meyer interview. See also
Church Committee Report
, Book IV, pp. 18–19 re: early days of Office of National Estimates and its role.

16
.

Kennan correspondence, August 12, 1982; see also “Help for Nazis Held Not Unusual,”
New York Times
, February 20, 1983.

17
.

For “stigma” comment: Meyer interview, December 30, 1983; see Hilger and Meyer, op. cit., pp. viii-ix for data on “generous grant.” Kennan's role in obtaining Hilger's security clearance is found in Hilger's U.S. Army INSCOM file no. 84066.3224, also numbered as INSCOM dossier XE 001780 D 20A042 (secret), Document 15, 51–52. A number of records implicating Hilger in crimes against humanity had, in fact, been introduced as evidence in war crimes trials at Nuremberg, though there is no indication that they were reviewed prior to Hilger's being granted a security clearance; see, for example, Nuremberg evidence documents NG 2594 and NG 5026, noted above.

18
.

On Hilberg's protest and 1962 incident with Charles Allen, see Allen, op. cit. Hilger's death: Letter to author from Christoph Brummer, press counselor, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, September 4, 1984.

19
.

Poppe, op. cit., pp. 163–64.

20
.

Ibid., pp. 165–66. On the Judeo-Tats, see also Rudolph Lowenthal, “The Judeo-Tats of the Caucasus,”
Historia Judaica
, vol. XIV (1952), p. 61ff.

21
.

For a surviving example of a Wannsee study, see Wannsee Institute, op. cit. On activities and staffing of the Wannsee Institute, including Poppe's role, see
Records of the Reich Leader of the SS and Chief of the German Police
, loc. cit., Roll 456, Frame 2972093ff., for correspondence, security passes, lists of employees, etc., from the institute.

22
.

Records of the Reich Leader of the SS and Chief of the German Police
, loc. cit., Roll 455, Frame 2971560ff., for documentation concerning Wannsee's role in the looting of libraries and bookdealers; and Roll 457, Frame 2973523ff, for Amt VI-G correspondence concerning use of concentration camp inmates for custodial work.

Poppe's comments: Poppe interviews, October 26 and December 4, 1984, and Poppe, op. cit., pp. 170 and 174–75.

23
.

Poppe, op. cit., pp. 170 and 175–76.

24
.

Rodes memo to DDI Frankfurt, May 22, 1947 (top secret), copy in author's collection. On Poppe's work for British and American agencies: Poppe, op. cit., pp. 191, 193–96, and 197–98.

25
.

State Department records concerning Poppe's immigration may be found at: “For [Carmel] Offie from [John Paton] Davies,” 800.4016 DP/3–848, March 8, 1948 (secret); “For Offie from Davies,” 893.00 Mongolia/3–1848, March 18, 1948 (secret); “For [James] Riddleberger from [George] Kennan,” 861.00/10–2248, October 22, 1948 (secret—sanitized); “Personal for Kennan from Riddleberger,” 861.00/11–248, November 2, 1948 (secret—sanitized); and “Personal for Riddleberger from Kennan,” 800.4016 DP/5–449, May 3, 1949 (secret), signed also by Robert Joyce, all at RG 59, NA. The sanitized correspondence was obtained through the FOIA.

On Poppe's immigration, also: author's interviews with Poppe, October 26 and December 4, 1984; Davies, November 28, 1983; and Evron Kirkpatrick, November 10, 1983.

Poppe's U.S. Army INSCOM file is available via the FOIA and is No. 84107. 3224. For British Foreign Office correspondence on the Poppe affair, see
British Foreign Office: Russia Correspondence 1946–1948, F. O. 371
(microfilm collection of British records), Scholarly Resources, Wilmington, Del., 1982, particularly 1946 File 911, Document 12867, p. 80ff., and 1946 File 3365, Document 9647, p. 22ff. It is interesting to note that U.S. Political Adviser in Germany James Riddleberger, who played a role in the escape of Klaus Barbie, was directly involved in arranging Poppe's immigration to the United States. (Riddleberger is deceased.) Robert Joyce, who assisted in the American end of the transit arrangements, also played a key role in the immigration of Albanian émigrés with backgrounds as Nazi collaborators; see source note 34, below.